Dream a Little Dream
by paranoidangel
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.
1. Prologue

Title: Dream a Little Dream  
Author: paranoidangel  
Words: 17,000 altogether  
Rating: PG  
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Nat Redfern, Josh Townsend  
Spoilers: SJS audios: Buried Secrets and Fatal Consequences, School Reunion and small ones for The Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel  
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.  
Beta: by tellitslant   
Disclaimer: Not mine, guv

**Prologue**

That the church was crowded was not a surprise, for Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart was a popular man. Despite Sarah calling the other members of UNIT by their names, he was forever the Brigadier to her, even though he had been retired for several years now.

Having read his obituary in the paper a few days beforehand, she had hoped to slip into the back of the congregation and stay unnoticed. However, some of the soldiers she used to know had recognised her and had been anxious to pull her over for a chat before the ceremony. While this at least meant she had no trouble getting in, it did highlight to her just who was missing. These people had done a dangerous job - some of whom were still doing it - and too many of them had not come back alive.

Many people got up and praised the Brigadier, making the service a long one. It was not just the usual 'speak no ill of the dead' talk either, for Sarah agreed with many of the sentiments expressed in the speeches. She wished she had been more grateful to the Brigadier when he was alive and told him how much she had appreciated everything he had done for her during her association with UNIT. While it was too late for him, she resolved to express the same sentiments to some of the other ex-UNIT staff while she could.

Once they were on the way to the graveside she could not help but look around. She had almost given up hope of ever seeing Harry Sullivan alive again but she had thought the Doctor would be here, given his fondness for the Brigadier. There was no telling what he would look like, though, so in theory he could be pretty much any of the people here, except that the Doctor always stuck out a mile in any crowd and so far everyone had seemed fairly normal. It was entirely possible, though, knowing him, that he would get the wrong day or the wrong country by mistake.

She smiled at the thought, remembering the times when that often happened. Her mood did not last, though, for the tone around her was solemn and she had not forgotten the reason why she was here. As the vicar intoned the now-familiar words, she was reminded of other funerals she had been to recently. It seemed like there had been too many, although just one would have been more than enough.

The one she was dreading the most would happen when Harry's status was changed officially from missing to dead. Although until she saw him for herself she would never stop hoping to see him again, just like she had done with the Doctor when she had believed him to be dead once too.

Overwhelmed by her thoughts and memories, Sarah could not hold back her tears that had been threatening for a while in this atmosphere. Although it was not unusual to cry at a funeral, she felt that she had not really known the Brigadier well enough to have the right to appear to grieve for him so openly, not least because it was not just him she was weeping for.

She gave a sniff and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, not that it helped much. She became aware of the presence of a person who had moved nearer to her but whom she wanted to ignore until she felt more composed. She never got the chance to collect herself though, because she saw something white in her peripheral vision and when she looked up she saw whoever stood next to her was offering her his handkerchief. She was obviously not being quite as discreet as she thought she was.

She took it and turned to thank the stranger but she got no words out because the owner of the handkerchief was very definitely Harry Sullivan.

He smiled at her and murmured, "Hello, old girl."


	2. Part 1

Title: Dream a Little Dream  
Author: paranoidangel  
Words: 17,000 altogether  
Rating: PG  
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Nat Redfern, Josh Townsend  
Spoilers: SJS audios: Buried Secrets and Fatal Consequences, School Reunion and small ones for The Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel  
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.  
Beta: by tellitslant   
Disclaimer: Not mine, guv

**Part 1**

It was the same old Harry - he did not even look different. Well, maybe a little older and a little more tired if she was honest but then she had changed since she last saw him too. Once she had recovered from the initial shock, Sarah itched to be able to talk to Harry, so the rest of the ceremony seemed to drag interminably.

She did not even get a chance afterwards because during the wake there had been the Brigadier's family to pay their respects to. Also, Harry had not had an opportunity to catch up with some of the other people there. She ended up chatting amiably enough about the Brigadier, as well as other subjects, but could never quite take her eyes off Harry for very long, so surprised was she to see him. If anyone else noticed her lack of attention they did not comment.

It was a few hours before people started to drift away. Sarah kept looking at her watch, hoping to hint to Harry that she wanted to leave. After a few attempts she remembered he was a man, so she gave up and joined in his conversation with a couple of men she did not recognise. Their discussion was not really one she was interested in, so she did not listen much, instead allowing her mind to wander. When the men made their goodbyes she looked back at Harry to find him grinning at her.

"Did you want to talk to me, old girl?"

Sarah could have hit him. He was doing it on purpose, as he always did, just to get a reaction out of her. Well, she was determined not to give him the satisfaction, so went for the guilt trip instead. "Where have you been? No-one had heard from you for so long, I thought you must be dead."

Her ploy worked because his expression became serious once more. "I'm sorry, Sarah, but it's a secret. I can't tell you."

She sighed, although she was not really expecting any other answer.

"So what have you been up to?" he asked her.

Sarah smiled and shook her head. "That might take a while. Given that I can tell you all of it," she added.

He ignored her barb. "I don't have any other plans. Why don't I take you out to dinner and you can tell me all about it?"

"It's a deal."

The advantage of relating the past few years' experiences, Sarah found, was that it was easier, with a bit of distance, to laugh about them. Harry lived closest, so after dinner they both went back to his flat. She had caught him up on most of her life that he had missed by this point - hence the reason their meal had taken so long - but she was still finding it difficult to believe he was back and she was not ready to let him go just yet. Although Harry said he had only been back a few days his flat looked like he had never been away, which Sarah supposed was the effect of having had Will house-sit it.

There was a photograph on the mantelpiece that looked old. Harry was still a young man in it, younger even than when she had first met him, and the boy with him must have been Will. She smiled but it was bittersweet. She knew she would have to tell Harry the truth about Will, hoping that he would understand.

"What do you know about what happened to Will?" she asked, picking up the photo with one hand as she took a mug of tea from him in the other.

Harry glanced over her shoulder at the photo before he sat down. "I know he got mixed up in some nasty business with a company called, um..."

"Mandrake."

"That's it, Mandrake. He gave his life to stop them releasing a bio-weapon."

Although she felt she owed Harry the truth, she wanted the Sullivan family to remember Will as a hero, not as a member of a cult trying to infect the world's population with a deadly virus and murder her in the meantime. And Will was a good man, of that she was sure. "I asked him to help," she said, "and I got him killed."

"It's not your fault," Harry said. "No-one blames you."

She shook her head and turned to replace the photo while she blinked back tears. If Harry knew the truth and her part in it she was sure he would have no choice but to hold her responsible, as she did and she could not deal with that, not just yet.

"Sarah?" she heard from close behind her.

She turned to see Harry had got up to stand behind her and he was looking concerned, which she could not bear. She smiled at him and changed the subject so he would not ask any more questions. "I saw the Doctor," she said, stepping around him to sit down in the seat he had just vacated.

He followed suit, moving some papers to create some space on the other end of the sofa. "What, recently?"

"Well, not that long ago. He had regenerated again and he was different. But he was still the Doctor." She smiled at the memory. "It was just like old times, really, with aliens trying to kill us and take over the world. You know the sort of thing."

He grinned. "I remember."

It was hard talking about the Doctor because her happy memories of the time she had spent with him were always tinged with sadness. Unable to sit still, she got up again and went over to the window. Although it was dark out, and had been since before they finished dinner, there was enough light outside from cars and houses in the vicinity that she could still see quite clearly. It reminded her just how much she missed living in London. "He asked me to go with him."

"And what did you say?"

"I told him no. It was the right decision, I know, but..." She shivered. It did not help that all she could think about was that she could have asked the Doctor to find Harry, now that she knew he was alive.

Harry came up behind her again and put one hand on her shoulder. She let him this time, but not quite trusting herself to speak, she just stood there, not moving. After a few minutes she slipped out from under his hand and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Sarah--" he began but she was not going to let him finish whatever he intended to say.

"Look at the time," she said, as she noticed the clock on the wall over his shoulder. "We've talked so long I've missed the last train."

"Don't worry, old girl, you can stay here."

"That would be good, thank you. As long as you don't call me old girl," she offered up the old gripe but could not quite bring herself to make it sound as if she really meant it this time. As much as she complained, she had missed being called that and he knew it, if the number of times he had actually used her name that evening was anything to go by.

"You can take my bed; I'll sleep on the sofa."

She might have argued with him about that but she did not have the energy, and knew she was not going to win anyway. So she did not even bother with a token protest, as much as Harry would expect her to, and she borrowed one of his t-shirts instead.

Sarah woke with a jump in the middle of the night and immediately panicked because the shadows were in the wrong place. It was a minute before she remembered where she was and lay back, gazing at the ceiling and feeling her heart beating wildly. Once she had calmed down a little she found the clock, which told her in big red numbers it was 3.42. She had just turned over and closed her eyes again when she discovered what had woken her: a cry from Harry. She could not quite make out what he had said and her first thought was to wonder if he was being burgled.

She got out of bed and crept down the hall back to the lounge. It was lighter in there than the bedroom, as the streetlights filtered through the curtains, but it was just as quiet as the rest of the flat. She frowned and approached the sofa, verifying for herself that Harry was still lying on it. So he was not being burgled. She was just starting to think she must have imagined it and turned to go back to bed when Harry gave a shout. This time he definitely said, "No," and nearly threw the blanket that half covered him onto the floor.

Concerned, Sarah knelt down, gently laid one hand on his shoulder and called his name quietly into his ear. Harry was instantly awake, hyperventilating and frowning at her.

"You were having a nightmare," she told him.

"Sorry," he said. "Did I wake you?"

She shook her head and tried not to shiver in the cold. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked him instead, hoping it might help.

"Not really, no."

She sat back on her feet, looking at him and wondering what else to suggest. She was glad that he seemed to know because he asked, "Will you stay a while?"

"Of course."

Harry sat up, so there was space next to him, and he rearranged the blanket so it was over both of them. She could feel the heat coming off him, even while they were not quite touching, and she wondered why sitting so close was suddenly so uncomfortable.

They sat in silence for a while and Sarah heard Harry's breathing return to normal again. She eventually decided he was not going to talk about what was on his mind, especially given that all day he had never said anything to her that even hinted about what had happened to him. There was something about not being able to see him properly in the dark, though, which made it easier for her to tell him things she had not been able to earlier.

"I think there's someone else out for revenge on me," she began. "I keep getting untraceable silent phone calls and anonymous letters with no fingerprints."

"That's terrible. Who do you think is doing it? And why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"I don't know. I seem to have made more enemies than friends in my career." She sighed. Even if she had known the trouble she would end up causing for herself, she would not have done anything any different. As long as it was the right thing to do at the time, then it was still the right thing to have done, even after various attempts at retribution. "I'm not sure I can see any of them going in for something so petty, though," she added.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just don't answer the phone much." It was easier to lie to Harry in the dark too. Sarah sighed. "I've missed you."

Harry's answer was a kiss on her forehead. She leaned her head against his shoulder and he put his arm around her. The silence and her position were comfortable enough that Sarah closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensations. She certainly had no intention of moving for a while.

Sometime in the night she must have shifted round because by morning she lay with her head resting on Harry's chest. She sat up carefully, so as not to wake him but in doing so she thought he was probably not all that comfortable in the position he was in. She was reluctant to wake him, though, while he looked so peaceful, with no hint of the trouble he had faced in the night showing on his face.

As a compromise she got up to make some tea and by the time she got back she found he had removed the burden of the decision for her as he was already awake and rubbing his neck.

"Sorry," she said, handing him his tea, "you should have woken me up."

"I fell asleep just after you did." He smiled at her. "No harm done."

She settled back on the sofa next to him. "Harry, what happened to you that scared you so much?" She hoped he might be more amenable to answering now it was daylight and the previous night seemed further away.

He took a sip of tea and a long hard look into his mug. When he spoke at last it was halting, as if he was unsure of his words. "I was sent on an important mission, for peace, to help people. But not everyone wanted us there and they tried to stop us. I was lucky, they only captured me."

Sarah bit her lip, her imagination going wild with what he was not saying. "But it didn't work," she said. "I mean, you came home."

"I came home," he echoed.

"Oh, Harry, what did they do to you?" she asked, softly, resting one hand lightly on his arm.

He just shook his head. It had to be bad if he was refusing to tell her. Doubtless he felt it was not for delicate, female ears to hear. If he only said that she would correct him but then if he was not comfortable talking about it with her she did not really want to force him.

She unfolded her legs from underneath her and stood up, stretching. "I should get dressed," she said, and went back to Harry's bedroom, leaving him contemplating his tea. She wanted to give him some time alone so did not rush, although trying to find a way to tame her hair using only his comb was quite tricky in itself.

By the time she was ready to face the day she found Harry cooking breakfast. She decided to leave their conversation for another time, so put on a smile and sat down to eat.

Sarah hung around at Harry's flat for a few hours after breakfast, neither of them wanting her to leave just yet. Eventually, though, she'd had to go home, for she still had a piece needing to be written up by the end of the day. Getting back into journalism, even if it was just freelancing for a few newspapers, had been a way of trying to get her life back to normal after everything that had happened with the Orbus Postremo. She should have known it was never going to last.

When she got home in the middle of the afternoon, K-9 raced to meet her in the doorway, practically running over her feet. Sarah smiled at his enthusiasm, although it was good to be welcomed home.

"Did you miss me, K-9?"

"Yes, mistress."

She reached down to scratch behind his ears, which seemed to make him happy, and she picked up the post, looking through it as she followed K-9 into the house. It was a mixture of the usual junk and bills and as she bent to throw it on the coffee table she realised the table was no longer where it usually lived. In fact nothing was where it was supposed to be. Her lounge looked as if a tornado had hit it, with all the furniture toppled over, and her books and papers strewn across the floor. Yet her TV and computer were still there, so it was not an ordinary burglar. It said something about her life lately that she was not at all surprised by this.

"I don't believe it," she cried as she knelt down and picked up a book that was unfortunate enough to have landed open and have half its pages creased. "What happened, K-9?"

"The house has been broken into."

"Yes, I can see that." K-9 could be annoyingly literal at times. "But you were supposed to be guarding the house, not letting burglars in."

"Apologies, mistress. I believe I was disabled for a period of several hours."

"If the Doctor fixed you wrong, I'm going to kill him." Sarah sighed. It was just another mystery to add to the list. Who wanted revenge on her and had the ability to disable K-9? To say nothing of how they had done it.

She found the phone buried under the yellow pages only after she rang it from her mobile.

Josh turned up just as DC Taylor was leaving.

"Wow, they really made a mess in here," he stated the obvious, when he got inside.

Sarah ignored him, which tended to be a good idea at times and instead told him, "You could make yourself useful and help me clear it up."

"Is that all you called me for?" he asked, bending down to start tidying anyway.

"No. Look, this is something new. Can you speak to Nat and see if the two of you can find out anything useful? It looks like I'm going to be busy here for the rest of the day." The bright side was that she could have that clear out she had been meaning to do for weeks. It was always a good idea to find a bright side, she had discovered, it kept you from going mad.

"Yeah, sure. Any idea who might have done this? Apart from someone after you, as per usual." Josh frowned at one of her bank statements.

His tone was joking but Sarah was not in the mood and she snatched the statement off him. "Well, yes, thank you, Josh, I had worked that out for myself."

"Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry, this isn't your fault. It's just all of this is just a bit...you know," she said, pausing for a moment in the middle of a sea of paper. She had not realised how much she had accumulated, although she was sure a fair bit of this had come from other parts of the house.

"Yeah, I know. Why don't I finish this and you can write a list of anyone who might have done this."

"Okay. Thanks, Josh."

She smiled at him as he turned his attention to the furniture, trying to work out where it all lived. Although Josh had a tendency to annoy her he was at least just as easy to wind up. His heart was in the right place, though, and she settled down to attempt his suggestion.

Writing down the names of anyone who might hold a grudge took long enough because Sarah seemed to have accrued a lot of enemies over the years. She then started to cross off any that would not know about K-9 and would not have the resources to disable him until she realised there would not be anyone left on it. So she gave up and wrote the list out again, by which time Josh had made her lounge, at least, look like nothing untoward had happened as well as making her a cup of tea.

"It doesn't look like they took anything," he said, as they drunk their drinks.

"That's something, I suppose."

She fed him for his trouble and afterwards Josh took her list with him to meet Nat, and Sarah worked through her 300 emails, most of which were spam. She would change her email address but it just made life too difficult for work, so she had to live with it. She had let Nat loose on her computer on one occasion and ended up with various spam filters. But whoever was sending her letters also seemed to be working on her email account too, as their contents changed too often for the filters to keep up.

When she finally did get to do some work she ended up sending her article only a few hours before the deadline and was half asleep when she wrote it. It would not be the first time but that had happened more often when she was younger and less disciplined. It was not a habit she particularly wanted to fall back into.

She could not quite bring herself to go to sleep, though; afraid whoever had been there the previous night would come back while she was in the house this time. She liked this place, however much Josh nagged her about moving back to London. Besides, she had got settled here and did not really want to go back to the life she'd had a few years previously when she had never had enough time to unpack before moving again.

In the end she slept awkwardly in a chair with the TV on and K-9 at her feet. By dawn she had to admit she was going to need to move again. She gave up on sleeping and emailed Nat, who would be able to find somewhere new far quicker than she did. Afterwards, she started packing.

Nat outdid herself once again by finding Sarah both a new flat and a new mobile phone in the space of a day. It did involve her moving back to London, as she had requested, which made Josh happier. He constantly complained about her living in the middle of nowhere, although anything smaller than a large city was the country as far as he was concerned.

She felt slightly safer in her new place, or at least she told herself she did. Only Josh and Nat knew her new mobile number and as far as Royal Mail was concerned her forwarding address was a PO Box number. It did not stop her from jumping every time the phone rang or she heard a noise, though, as much as she told herself not to be so silly.

Having sorted that all of that out, even with Nat's help, Sarah remembered why she really did not like moving and desperately hoped she would not have to do it again in the near future, even though the local charity shop had benefited from it. Once she had dealt with the most important things, the only other person who needed to know, and had not been involved in her fly-by-night moving experience, was Harry. She carefully dialled 141, as Nat had reminded her more than once, before Harry's number.

"Sarah, old girl!" he exclaimed, once she had established her identity. "Where the devil have you been?"

She could not help but smile at his words. "Sorry I haven't been in touch earlier, I had to move."

"Had to? What happened?"

"Someone broke in, the other night when I was at your place. They didn't take anything," she added, certain that otherwise that would be his next question, edged with guilt.

"Isn't moving house a touch drastic? Do you really think they'll come back?"

She looked out of the front window but did not see anything suspicious. "I don't know."

There was a pause at the other end of the line. "Is everything all right?"

He sounded so worried that Sarah could not really say yes. Besides, she was not very good at actively lying to Harry. Leaving things out, on the other hand, was rapidly becoming an art form.

"There's a park across the road from your flat, isn't there?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"I'll meet you there in..." she looked at her watch, calculating routes, "...thirty minutes."

He agreed but still sounded confused, which was not a surprise really, given he knew next to nothing about the real reasons for the increase in her usual levels of paranoia.

It was cold out, being winter, so Sarah felt justified in wrapping herself in a big coat and hat, so that she would have trouble being recognised. She did not stand out too much, for there were other people taking advantage of the sunshine, although most of them were using it to take strolls with their lovers or walk their dogs. She almost wished for a dog on a lead too, for camouflage, except that she already had one. Even if he did need walking, taking him out on the streets would reveal what he really was and that was not really something she could explain. Not even Josh and Nat knew the whole truth and they had taken a little while to accept K-9.

Her disguise certainly worked because when Harry arrived he carried on walking right past her, until she called out to him.

"Sorry, old girl! I didn't recognise you."

"That was the point." She felt like she blended in a little more now that Harry was here. For once, she hoped that people did get the wrong idea about them.

He frowned and touched her arm. "What's wrong, Sarah?"

"I think someone is trying to, I don't know, scare me maybe." She pulled her sleeves down over her gloved hands and folded her arms. "It started with the letters and phone calls, and then they broke in. And disabled K-9. I don't know anyone who could do that, except maybe the Doctor."

"You should have told me."

She almost said, "I did," but she knew what he meant: brushing it off was not the same at all. She turned and started walking again so she did not have to see his face. "There wasn't anything you could do," she said instead. "Even the police have no idea who is behind it."

"Sarah--" he began, but she cut him off.

"It's fine, I'm dealing with it. I'll give you my new number, just don't write it down." She did not mean to sound so harsh but she could tell what he was thinking because he was calling her by her name. It was not as if her life was in danger, so she did not want his sympathy just at the moment.

He said, "Okay," quite quietly, putting his hands in his pockets.

When Sarah glanced over at him, he was resolutely looking straight ahead. By way of apology she put her arm through his, at which point he relaxed and smiled at her. She changed the subject as they passed other people on their way out of the park and spoke of inconsequential things as she led him on an indirect route back to her place.

K-9's tail was wagging as they entered her new flat and he trundled towards them. Harry reached down to pat him. "Hello, old boy. Good to see you up and about again."

Sarah was thinking that K-9 almost seemed to be more pleased to see Harry than her, so she missed the A5 brown envelope that lay on the mat until she stepped over it. "That's odd," she said. "It's a bit late for the post."

"No stamp," Harry pointed out as she turned it over. "It's been hand delivered."

"While I was out." Sarah frowned. She did not believe in coincidences but this was getting ridiculous. She was not entirely sure she wanted to open it but it was not the size of the usual anonymous letters she'd had and her curiosity was getting the better of her. She regretted her decision when she saw the contents: photographs of her; her old house and her new one.

It was the last straw and every hope that she'd had that day died quickly and suddenly and she put a hand to her mouth in a futile effort to prevent a sob from escaping.

Harry pulled the photos from her unresisting fingers and put an arm around her. She gave up the battle for tears and cried into his coat.

Afterwards, Sarah let Harry make her some tea while she rung Nat. When the doorbell rang at last she leapt up. It would not help to have Harry open the door when she was not quite sure what Nat might do in her defence.

"Who is it?" she asked K-9, who had not left her side since she got in.

"Natalie Redfern," he informed her, so she opened it.

"Are you all right?" Nat asked as she entered. "You sounded terrible on the phone."

"These were put through my door while I was out," Sarah said, handing Nat the photos. "Someone put them through next door's letterbox, so K-9 can't tell us who delivered them."

Nat frowned at the photos. "I'll see what I can find out, then pass them onto the police. Don't hold your breath, though."

"Thanks, Nat." Normally Sarah would investigate herself but it was hard to concentrate at the moment, so Nat would be much better than she would.

Sarah suddenly realised Nat had been eyeing up Harry suspiciously. "Oh, Nat, this is Harry Sullivan. Harry's an old friend. He was here when I found these." If she thought that gave him some sort of alibi in Nat's eyes she was mistaken but she carried on anyway. "Harry, this is Nat Redfern, she helped me find this place."

"If he's an old friend," Nat said, "why haven't we met before?"

"Harry's away a lot. There's no need to be suspicious. Or jealous." Not that Sarah could blame her, given that Harry reappeared just after all this started and that she had never mentioned him.

Harry smiled but Nat's expression did not really change.

'And she says _I'm_ paranoid,' Sarah thought.

Nat did manage to drag herself back to the topic at hand, at least. "Maybe we can get Josh to do a recce, find out where these people have been watching you from. When I find him, that is."

"I hope nothing's happened to him."

"You know Josh. He'll turn up eventually, with no idea what the fuss is about."

Sarah gave a small laugh but could not help but worry that whoever it was that was after her might go through Josh.

"Will you be all right if I go and work on this?" Nat asked.

Nat could not live without a broadband connection. Although in all fairness it was quite hard for her to do any of the things she was good at on a 56k modem.

"I can stay," Harry put in.

Sarah smiled at him and purposely ignored Nat's expression. Normally she would have felt perfectly safe with only K-9 for company but if whoever was after her could disable him he was suddenly more useless as a guard dog.

Josh, for once, displayed some remarkably good timing by turning up while Harry had gone back to his place for some things.

"Where have you been?" Sarah scolded him, for once not caring that she sounded like his mother. "You know these people probably wouldn't hesitate to use my friends to get to me."

"Sorry. I was out late, got drunk, woke up with a hangover."

"And turned your phone off."

"Yeah, well, I didn't want to be interrupted."

Sarah considered what he might have been doing that he did not want them to disturb before deciding she did not really want to know. "Have you spoken to Nat?"

"Yeah, she said you were being spied on."

"They've got pictures of me and the house. They must have set up somewhere or someone must have seen them. Do you think you can find out?"

"I'll give it a go."

She smiled. "Thanks."

Sarah ended up spending most of the rest of the day with a screwdriver (although sadly not a sonic one) inside K-9. It was something of a vain hope really, that his wiring might give them some clues as to how these people disabled him. Mostly she was just hoping not to touch the wrong thing and break him. She wished he came with a manual but since she probably would not understand it anyway, it would not be much good. K-9 himself was not terribly helpful because he was in the wrong position to see what she was pointing at and he had a tendency not to understand what she was describing to him.

She was half-expecting someone to break in that night, so slept fitfully, even though she knew Harry was in the spare room. She was already awake when she heard him cry out. She lay in bed and debated whether to wake him up when she heard him call out her name.

K-9 was hovering outside Harry's door but disappeared without a word when he saw Sarah. She pushed open the door tentatively and there was enough light for her dark-adjusted eyes to see he still slept. As she approached he called her name again, quieter this time. She said, "Harry," softly. He smiled - that must have done the trick. He seemed calmer but she stayed for a few minutes and he did not make another sound, so she decided to leave him and check the house before going back to bed and failing to sleep due to having another thing to worry about.

The sun was rising when she gave in and got up. She lay on the sofa with a mug of herbal tea and a now-sleeping K-9 in front of breakfast TV in the hope that she might fall asleep again, against her expectations. All that actually happened was the TV bored her and she was just thinking of making another drink when she heard Harry get up.

"Good morning," he greeted her.

"Morning," she said, and held out her mug, too tired to care about manners just at the moment. Harry got the message, though, and she got her tea.

"So it was a quiet night in the end," he said, settling on a chair with a mug of his own.

"Was it?"

He frowned and she took pity on him.

"I heard you having another nightmare," she said. "How often have you had them?"

He did not answer straight away and Sarah was wondering if coffee might have been better for keeping her awake. She stared at him until he was uncomfortable enough to look away and answer.

"Every night."

"Oh, Harry." Sarah felt frustrated that he was so obviously hurting and there seemed to be nothing she could do about it. She was determined to get him to tell her something more this time. After all, at this point it could hardly make him worse. "You called my name last night. Was I in your dream?"

He smiled and looked at her. "Yes. I don't really know what happened, it doesn't make any sense, but I thought you rescued me."

"You're right, it doesn't make any sense."

"You took me to a UNIT base, not far away. I could well have made it there on my own except that I didn't know that base existed."

"You must have known about it once and you remembered when you needed to." He turned to look out the window but Sarah could tell the view was not what he was seeing.

"You gave me some water and patched me up." He turned back to smile at her. "I think you threw me in a river."

Sarah could not help smiling as well. "You definitely have an interesting imagination."

"You weren't my imagination." He sat back down and gave her a piercing look. "Those were the exact words you used."

"It doesn't really matter how you got here, as long as you're here now."

"There isn't anyone else I'd prefer as my guardian angel."

Suddenly uncomfortable, Sarah rolled her empty mug between her hands and deliberately changed the tone from intense to light. "So I am useful for something other than making tea."

"I believe I made yours."

She grinned. "That's because it's the women who are in power now."

"Don't I know it," he said but since he smiled back Sarah counted that as a victory.

Josh and Nat both arrived just before lunch. After another round of introductions for Josh and suspicious looks from Nat, Sarah decided she would prefer an easy life, so wrote a list and sent Harry to Tescos. It was a trip that needed doing anyway, as dinner the previous night had been take-away and breakfast had been microwaved take-away. About the only thing in the house that was edible was tea and Sarah was starting to run out of that.

"So, he's an old friend?" Josh asked.

Sarah could tell where this was going from his tone of voice. "Yes. And yes, he's just a friend, before you ask."

Josh closed his mouth and Nat giggled.

Sarah decided to get down to business. "So, what have you found out?"

"The photos were taken with a digital camera, so no way of telling where they were developed. The police are trying to find out if it was bought locally recently."

"You seem to be spending a lot of time with the police lately," Josh said

"Yes, well, they've been very helpful," Nat said. "And you do want them to catch whoever's doing this to Sarah, don't you?"

Sarah thought she had better step in before there was an argument, although she did think Nat seemed to be acting overly defensive for no obvious reason. "What about you, Josh?"

"I met an old lady who lives opposite. I think, from what she said, they've been in there, watching the house."

Sarah shivered and very carefully did not look round in the direction of her front window.

"Not much of a description, though, she was nearly blind."

"That's a start, at least."

"Yes, and we know they're not there any more. So either they've given up or found somewhere else," Nat said.

"Let's hope it's the former."

"There was one strange thing she said," Josh put in, "Well, lots really but only one was actually relevant."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Go on."

"The man who was there told her he was in the army. Or at least, she thought that's what he said."

"That is odd," Sarah agreed. "I mean, pretending to be the police I could understand."

"Assuming he was telling the truth," Nat said, "why is the army after you?"

"I don't know. I don't even know anyone in the army."

Out of ideas, and with Harry back, they stopped for lunch. Afterwards, Nat promised to see what she could find on their mystery army man and Josh was dispatched to go back to the old lady who lived over the road, whose name he had not even managed to learn in all the time he had spent with her.

A week later they were no further on than they had been before and nothing much had changed. Whoever was trying to scare her had even found out Sarah's new mobile number, at which point she had given up answering it any more. When Harry had eventually given in and picked it up, Nat had given him a load of stick before she realised who was on the other end. Sarah had just let Harry take all her calls after that, at which point the silent breathing ones had mysteriously stopped. She fervently hoped it was just a coincidence this time.

She was starting to go stir crazy, or possibly just crazy, she could not quite tell. She was almost amazed Harry was still polite to her being as he ended up on the receiving end of most of it, as he was around her the most. It did not help that in addition to her insomnia, which had not improved since her first night in the new flat, Harry was still having loud nightmares, which Sarah had got to the stage of ignoring until he quietened down again and she could go back to sleep.

It was not really much of a shock when they had a flaming row over something so trivial she could not remember what they had started arguing about by the time they finished. The only surprise was that they had lasted this long without one.

"Will you stop making me more tea and defend yourself?" she shouted. "I don't want any more tea."

Harry switched the kettle off and put the box of tea bags down. "You drink too much anyway."

She held onto the kitchen side tightly. "Oh, right, because you're a doctor you know best and I should just do everything you say."

"Now, look, Sarah..." He held his hands out but she would not be placated.

"You might not have noticed but times have changed and the world has woken up to the fact that women are just as good as men. Your Victorian attitude just isn't going to cut it any more."

He looked hurt at her words, just for a moment until he turned his back on her. She was temporarily glad just to have got a reaction from him, until she had an attack of conscience.

"Harry..." she began but he did not acknowledge her. She decided distance was probably a good thing and ran outside. She sagged against the front door and breathed, intending to go back in and apologise after a minute or two.

She never got the chance, though, because just as she pushed herself away from the door there were suddenly hands holding her still and something horrible smelling being pressed to her mouth. She tried to shout but the only sound that came out was too muffled for anyone to hear. She struggled but there were more of them and they were stronger, even before the drug started to take effect. She thought she heard K-9 call, distantly, but his voice faded quickly, as if in a dream.


	3. Part 2

Title: Dream a Little Dream  
Author: paranoidangel  
Words: 17,000 altogether  
Rating: PG  
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Nat Redfern, Josh Townsend  
Spoilers: SJS audios: Buried Secrets and Fatal Consequences, School Reunion and small ones for The Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel  
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.  
Beta: by tellitslant   
Disclaimer: Not mine, guv

**Part 2**

When she came to she was unmistakably in a chilly cellar. It was not very big so it did not take her long to examine it. There was one naked light bulb in the centre of the low ceiling that was not very bright, which Sarah desperately hoped was because it was a low wattage and not because it was about to go. The floor was cold to the touch and the bottoms of the walls were damp and mouldy. Neither showed any signs of being anything other than well-built. There were no windows either, so the only way out and in was via the door at the bottom of the stairs, which she thought was unusual.

Whoever had locked her in there had kindly left her a bucket with some toilet roll next to it and a big bottle of water, but nothing else. She had not had her watch or her mobile on her when she left the flat, so she had no idea how much time had passed. She just hoped K-9 had noticed something and told Harry.

As bored as she had been, cooped up in her flat, it now seemed heavenly compared to imprisonment in a cellar. She did not find anything she could use to get out on her second trip round to check she had not missed anything the first time. She had tried shouting at the door and banging on it until her throat and hands hurt but either there was no-one there or no-one cared. She hoped the presence of the water did not imply the former and that they were merely giving her more time to die.

After a while she found the trouble with being on your own with nothing to do was that it gave you time to think. At no point had she seen any of the people who had now stepped up to kidnapping, so she still had no idea who they were or what their goal was. If they wanted something from her then they would have to show themselves at some point. Sarah certainly could not think of any other reason for her being here. A kidnap did immediately make her think of a ransom but there had to be better targets if you wanted money. And why go to the trouble of scaring her first? Assuming it was the same people, which she did, being as she did not believe in coincidences. She often wished she did but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.

Her abduction must have been planned and they had to be have been waiting for her to leave the flat, as they got there so quickly. Except they'd had plenty of opportunities while Harry was out, given that K-9 did not seem to present them with much of a problem. Her thoughts went round in circles, unable to make sense of it all.

Her head started spinning, whether from the muggy air or the drugs they had given her to knock her out, so she lay down. She had nothing to make a pillow from other than her clothes and the floor was cold enough she was not going to take any of those off. She lay on her back with her arms behind her head and considered Harry instead.

She was going to have to apologise to him when she saw him. She had not exactly been the easiest person to live with this past week but Harry had never once complained. When she had ended up being hurtful he had not reciprocated. Although she did not think she would lose his friendship over one argument, it was still difficult to work out how to show him just how sorry she was and how much she valued his company.

Thinking of Harry led her mind onto what he had said about believing she had rescued him. The only way it made sense was if he had imagined it. But if he had, why had it taken him so long to escape? He had been missing a long time and she knew she had not been there. Except... if she had not been there yet. She knew someone with a time machine: she had Rose's phone number that she had assured Sarah would work wherever and whenever the TARDIS was.

When Sarah had said goodbye to the Doctor, properly this time, she had meant never to see him again. She had needed to stop thinking about him coming back again and get on with her life. Harry, though, was more important than that. What if his only way of escape was through the Doctor? She pondered the questions over and over in her mind until she fell into an exhausted sleep.

She had been awake for a few hours, she guessed, when she heard someone coming down the steps to the cellar. The drugs were at least out of her system now and she felt much more awake and clear-headed. She was hungry and thirsty though, as she had carefully rationed her water given that she had no way of knowing whether she would get any more.

In the few seconds she had to grab a weapon and take a chance that might not come again, she chose the bucket - its contents being more disposable than the water bottle and there was certainly nothing else she could use. As she heard the locks being pulled back she pressed her back against the wall, held her breath and waited.

The door opened cautiously, which was not what she was expecting. Her surprise prevented her from moving at first, which was just as well considering that the person who came through it was Harry.

"Harry! What's going on?"

He still stood in the doorway eyeing the bucket she held, so she put it down and moved away a little.

"I'm sorry you've got mixed up in this, Sarah."

"You're sorry? I--"

"They've been using you to get at me. I thought I had escaped and come back home but all the time they had another plan. Another way to get me to do what they wanted."

She shivered. "What are they going to do to you?"

"Not me, you. If I help them they'll let you go. Otherwise..."

Sarah did not think she needed to know what the alternative was. "You can't do it, Harry." Whatever it was she might have to endure, she would, if it was as important as it appeared to be.

"I'm sorry. I can't let them hurt you." He turned away and started to pull the door closed behind him.

"Harry, don't," she shouted at him, desperately.

"Goodbye, Sarah," he said as he closed the door behind him with a thump.

Sarah ran to it, shouting his name but he never came back. She went for the water bottle and slumped to the floor before taking a sip. After spending a minute trying to work out what was going on and how she was going to stop Harry from doing something so foolhardy she realised what she had missed: she had not heard the door being locked again.

Cautiously, she got up and turned the knob. When she pulled, the door moved. She only opened it enough that she could see through the crack and establish there was no-one there. She ascended the stairs and did the same thing with the door at the top. She hoped nothing too horrible was going to happen to Harry as a result of his actions.

She crept around a house that resembled a perfectly ordinary one, apart from the use the cellar had been put to, and searched for anything that could be useful. There were four empty mugs, she noticed, on the dining room table, each holding down a corner of a handwritten map. Sarah bent over to examine it but presumably it was written in some sort of code because she did not understand where it referred to.

She had barely even begun to try and work it out when she heard a noise from above her that was definitely a person walking about. Quickly, she rolled the map up and hid it up her sleeve. She tiptoed to the front door and went through it but did not bother closing it - it would make too much noise. Besides, she had not shut any of the other doors she had been through and it would not take them long to work out she had escaped.

Once outside she ran until she had rounded the corner and was sure they could not see her from the house. She stopped to catch her breath and rest her aching feet, slippers not being the best footwear to run in. She had to carry on for a few more streets before she found a phone box. Grateful they had not all disappeared thanks to the mobile phone, she dialled 999 and stayed where she was, hoping the police would find her first.

Sarah wished she could help the police as much as they had helped her. The local police station had given her a meal and a cup of tea and called DC Taylor over, who was the officer in charge of her case. The only useful thing she could tell them was where to find the house and that would not do much good if it had been abandoned, as she suspected it might well be by now. The map was just as incomprehensible to them but they had at least photocopied it so they could study it some more and she had a copy to give to Nat, whom DC Taylor had promised would be waiting for her once they were done. It did not occur until later to her to wonder exactly how that had been arranged.

She was still worried about Harry, though. Presumably he had some sort of plan that only involved looking as if he was cooperating but since he had not said much she had no real way of knowing. Doubtless it was because he was being overheard but some sort of clue would have been helpful. His assessment of her abilities to work it all out was grossly exaggerated. At least he was someone she could give a good description of to the police, so there was slightly more chance of them finding him, she hoped.

When they were finished at last it was dusk, leaving her wondering whether it was still the same day or whether she had missed one, locked in that cellar. Nat was waiting for her at the front desk.

She greeted her with, "Sarah, you look awful!"

Sarah smiled. She was so glad to see a friendly face and she interpreted Nat's comment in the manner she meant it. "So would you if you had spent your day locked in a dark cellar. Or was it two days?"

"I've been so worried about you. Harry called and told us you'd disappeared but he was taking care of it. I didn't know what to think."

"I need your help but I'll explain everything on the way home."

Once Nat was up-to-date on all that had happened so far, and Sarah had showered and changed and was feeling more human, she showed Nat the copy of the map she had found.

"I think this might tell us where they've gone," Sarah said. "Can you work out where it is?"

Nat frowned, turning the map around to examine it closely before putting it down. "I don't know but I'll work on it."

"Thank you." She sighed. "There's something else I need you to do. Um, it's a bit illegal."

"A bit illegal? Isn't that like being a bit pregnant?"

"Well, okay, it's very illegal. Harry was captured not long ago and I need to know where he's being held. It should be in his Navy files."

"And you want me to hack in?"

"Yes, please."

Nat closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Do you know what could happen if I got caught?"

"I have a good idea. Look, Nat, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. I think the whole of time could hinge on it."

Nat, unsurprisingly, looked distinctly sceptical. Sarah just waited for Nat to make her mind up. If she really did not want to do it Sarah did not want to force her, given the potential consequences. Getting one of her few remaining friends imprisoned was not that high on her to-do list.

"All right," she said eventually. "But you're going to owe me a lot of favours for this."

Sarah could not help but smile, relieved. "I know. Thank you, Nat."

"I'll go and get it over with, then. Are you going to be all right?"

"Oh, yes, I'll be fine. I've been through worse."

Nat looked dubious, not that Sarah blamed her. "Well, if you're sure. Just be careful, okay?"

Sarah smiled. "I will."

Once Nat left, Sarah went through the flat, looking for her old SIM cards, which she eventually found in an old ice-cream box at the back of a drawer. She really wished she had labelled some of them, though, because there were quite a few of them. Once again she resolved to do something with them, instead of carting them around from one place to the next, as she swapped each one in her current phone in turn. The right one was, of course, the last one she tried.

Rose answered after a few rings.

"Hello, Rose," Sarah said. "It's Sarah Jane Smith."

"Oh, hi, Sarah." Rose, understandably, sounded surprised to hear from her. "How are you?"

"Well, I'm... actually I need your help. Where are you?"

"Um, hang on. Doctor, where are we?"

Sarah heard the Doctor's voice in the background but could not tell what he was saying, only that it was a lot.

"He doesn't know either."

Sarah smiled. Some things never changed. "Once you've worked it out, you couldn't stop by, could you? You and the Doctor."

"Sure. It'll be good to see you again. Doctor!"

Sarah grimaced and held the phone away from her ear as Rose's last words were considerably louder than the rest.

"I'll get back to you," Rose said, remarkably calmly considering her previous comment, and hung up.

After she put the phone down, Sarah paced nervously. The Doctor could, in theory, turn up at any time and she had to be ready. Except that she would never be. As she turned the kettle on she heard a familiar sound in her lounge. She stood in the doorway and watched as the Doctor and Rose stepped out of a familiar blue police box.

"Hello Sarah," the Doctor said, looking just like she had left him, down to the long brown coat and white trainers.

"Tea?" she asked, which saved her from thinking about what she wanted to say to him.

"Ooh, yes, please."

"And for me, thank you," Rose added.

Sarah busied herself with making three cups of tea and trying to get her hands to stop shaking. She could not keep acting like this every time she saw him. When she had finished and brought their drinks to the lounge, the Doctor was communing with K-9 and Rose was sat on the sofa, laughing at him. Sarah had to smile as well. K-9 seemed just as excited to see the Doctor again as the Doctor was to see him.

When something vaguely approaching decorum was reached, Sarah broached the reason why she had called.

"I need your help, Doctor," she said. "Harry was on a secret mission and he went missing. I found out he had been captured and he needs me to help him escape."

"So, you and Harry kept in touch."

"There weren't that many people I could talk to about the things I'd seen. Well, there weren't any really, apart from Harry."

"So where is he?"

"I don't know. I have a friend working on it. Once she rings, we can leave." She bit her lip. "The thing is, this is in the past. For him this has already happened."

"Sarah, I wish I could help but I can't do that. Crossing your own time stream causes so many problems." He looked over at Rose as he said it. Rose looked away and Sarah wondered what had happened to provoke that response.

"I think you already have. I've been thinking about this." She leaned forward on her seat. "Harry remembers me helping him to get away to a UNIT base nearby. And if I haven't done it yet, it must follow that's because I'm going to do it in the future."

The Doctor got up and went over to the window, hands in his pockets.

Sarah decided to play the sympathy card. "Harry needs our help. Yours and mine." The Doctor never could resist a distress call.

"You've put me in a very difficult position, Sarah." He turned to face her. "I will help you but you must promise to do everything I say."

She smiled, relieved. "Thank you."

Being in the TARDIS again was strange after so long. She had seen the console room recently but the rest of it was overwhelming and even though the Doctor had redecorated, it was still basically the same. The kitchen stocked several varieties of tea and the wardrobe room still had some of the clothes she had worn and not taken with her when she left. They seemed to be coming back into fashion, so she donated them to Rose who was inordinately happy to receive them.

While waiting for Nat to ring with Harry's location the Doctor was spending some quality time with the TARDIS, so Sarah spent her time with Rose instead. It was good to have someone else to talk to about what she had seen back in the days she had spent with UNIT and the Doctor. They traded stories over tea and brightly coloured biscuits, which was much more pleasant now they were not trying to compete with each other over them.

Rose was especially interested to hear about Sarah's experiences with the Cybermen and Sarah was equally fascinated in Rose's encounter with them on a parallel world. At least, up until the end of the tale, which mostly involved Rose crying, Sarah comforting her and eventually managing to get out of her what had happened.

Although it probably did them both no end of good, and Sarah genuinely enjoyed spending time with Rose, as the hours passed Sarah got more fidgety and had to remind herself that it did not matter how long it took, the Doctor would still be able to get her to Harry and then home again just after she left. She did spend the time usefully by finding some clothes that might camouflage her a little and packing a bag of things she might need, like a torch, some water and a first aid kit.

When Nat came through, as she always did, Sarah found an empty bedroom and slept for four hours. When she got up they were already there.

"He's being held here," the Doctor pointed on a map he had laid out over the console, "and the UNIT base is here."

The second place he pointed to seemed a long way away for two people on foot and she did not know what condition Harry was in. She wished they could use the TARDIS but as Harry had not mentioned it the Doctor would not allow her, no matter how much she had tried wearing him down while they were waiting. She consoled herself that he would probably only get the time and place completely wrong anyway.

"I'll tell them to expect you," he continued. He went on to describe the terrain and her route in such detail that Sarah felt sure she would forget at least half of it by the time she stepped out of the TARDIS. "Good luck," he said at last.

"Can I borrow the sonic screwdriver?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Because it might come in useful."

The Doctor did not look happy at all about giving it away.

"You're only going to be with UNIT, but what if Harry is tied up and I don't have anything to break his bonds with?"

The Doctor sighed and handed it over. "Guard it with your life," he said.

"I promise I won't lose it." She turned to leave but the Doctor stopped her.

"Sarah. Be careful. Just because you're in the past doesn't mean nothing will happen to you out there."

She smiled, touched that he still cared. "I will."

Despite the Doctor's lecture, Sarah was still unsure about what she was going to see outside. Almost as soon as she left the TARDIS it vanished as the Doctor took it elsewhere. There was plenty of greenery around to hide in, so she crept slowly through the hedges, in case anyone was around. By the time the scenery changed and she came upon a clearing, her legs were starting to seize up from crouching down.

Harry was lying in the middle of a patch of dead grass with nothing else around him she could see. She was expecting him to be held in some kind of building at least but there was nothing else around except for the tall trees that hid the clearing from the road where she had left the TARDIS. The sun was high in the sky, though, and the shade did not reach Harry where he was. She could not tell whether it was really hot here or it was just the change from the winter she had left. Either way, it probably was not doing him any good.

She could not see any guards around so she whispered, "Harry," as loud as she dared.

Harry immediately sat up and looked round. She called his name again when he looked in her direction and she knew he had seen her because he smiled. A pair of booted legs, belonging to a man in fatigues carrying a gun, cut across her line of vision and she nearly jumped. As he passed, she could see Harry was looking at him, not her. As he had a better view than she had, she did not move.

She was expecting, though, once the guard left, for him to come to her but instead he called her over. When she got there, she discovered why: his hands and feet were bound. She pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and undid the chains as fast as she could. Once done he nearly fell over just standing up, so she grabbed his arm and pulled him along.

Now she was closer to him she could tell Harry was not in good shape. The several months between now and when she had seen him at the Brigadier's funeral had obviously given him enough time to recover. At the moment he looked thin, although some of that could have been an illusion due to the ill-fitting clothes he wore. He was pale, as well, despite his time in the sun, but she was glad to see he had no visible injuries.

He staggered behind her and they carried on in this fashion through the undergrowth until Harry finally did fall over and did not seem to have the energy to sit up. Sarah judged they were probably far enough away to be safe for a few minutes. She pulled two bottles of water from her pack, having a few sips of hers before offering the other one to Harry. He managed to lift his head to swallow but beyond that she had to help him. She only allowed him a few sips, just in case, and he seemed exhausted by the effort.

Turning her attention to his bonds she released the ones around his wrists and ankles, grimacing at the way they had cut into his skin. Putting the remains in her bag, so they could not be traced, she tried not to think about how much they must have been hurting him as she used a little of the water to clean his wrists and ankles as best she could before bandaging them up.

"I hope I'm doing this right," she said, daring to speak at last. "You know more about this than me."

"That's much better, thank you," he whispered in return.

She smiled and said, "Come on, we have to keep moving."

"Where are we going?" he asked, as she helped him up.

"You're lucky, UNIT have a base nearby. Once we get there, you'll be safe."

It seemed an effort for him just to walk and in truth it was beginning to wear her out too, as she found herself bearing much of his weight. When they next stopped, Sarah dug out two cereal bars that she had found in the TARDIS kitchen and they ate one each with a little more water. She spent some time looking at the print-out the Doctor had given her and wished her map reading skills were better.

Looking up at the darkening blue sky she was grateful that at least they were still on Earth. Trying to work out where you were when the sun rose and set in a different direction was hard work. And when there was more than one sun it all just got very confusing.

"If we carry on," she said eventually, "we ought to reach a river soon."

"A swim would be nice."

"Well, you do smell."

"Thanks a lot."

Sarah was relieved when they at last found the river. The journey had taken them a long time and it was getting dark already. She could not work out whether the colour of the water was down to the lack of light or just ordinary dirt and she wrinkled her nose, not really wanting to go in it but there was no other way of crossing. The only good side was that at least she would be somewhere warm and dry tomorrow. She seemed to have developed a habit lately, not entirely her own volition, of venturing into places where warm and dry seemed like paradise.

"It doesn't look very safe," Harry ventured.

Sarah closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Look, let's just get across, shall we?" When she looked back at Harry he was still looking sceptical. "Oh, this is ridiculous," she said and pushed him in. She followed more gingerly, holding her bag up to try and keep their supplies dry and slipping often on the rocky riverbed. Harry's swimming would have seemed much less hazardous had it not looked like he was going to drown every few seconds when he ran out of strength.

Once they dragged themselves out the other side Harry looked daggers at her and Sarah was very glad looks could not kill. She just ignored him and focused on finding them somewhere warmer to spend the night before they froze to death. Thankfully, the Doctor had planned well and marked a hay barn on the map.

Sarah lay down in one of the small piles of straw for a minute to rest her aching legs before realising she was going to have to do something about her shivering. She was glad Harry had told her about the river because it had given her a chance to pack a change of clothes for them both. She dug in and handed Harry's to him. She smiled slightly when he disappeared off to the other end of the small barn and pointedly kept his back turned. Sarah was almost at the point of not really caring much about what Harry saw of her and she was slightly amazed that this was something he still bothered about, even with the state he was in.

She changed quickly, though, and they had sandwiches for supper. She wished she could have packed more substantial food but there was only so much she could carry. Sandwiches and cereal bars had seemed the most usefully nutritious and easy to carry for a two day hike. It told her a lot about Harry's state that he had not offered to take the bag from her. That he had not so far called her 'old girl' also made her worry.

He did try to offer to be a look-out first, so that she could sleep, but he seemed to be in no condition to be staying awake for any period of time so there was no way she was going to let him do that. She knew she had made the right decision when he fell asleep as soon as he lay down. Sarah turned the torch off once he had, to conserve the batteries and so there was less chance of anyone finding them.

Trying not to sleep in a pitch-black barn was hard, she discovered. Although, with enough time, she could make out shapes in the gloom, it was still much darker than she was used to. She got bored of playing games with herself and was toying with the idea of waking Harry up when she heard a familiar noise - Harry crying out in his sleep. She decided it was a sign and woke him up.

"Sarah," he said. "How are you here?"

"I can't tell you that."

"I'm imagining things. You can't possibly be here; you don't know where I am."

"I am here; I'm not your imagination. I am real, Harry."

Satisfied with this explanation, he went straight back to sleep. Sarah sighed and stood up, gambling that she was less likely to accidentally fall asleep that way. She walked around a little, rubbing the muscles in her legs as she felt them tightening up. She was just not used to this much exercise in such a short period of time. She was very glad UNIT were close by, otherwise she did not know where the Doctor might have suggested they head for.

When she realised she could see the other end of the barn due to the light and not just to her dark-adapted eyes she could have jumped for joy if she had not been so tired. She woke Harry up again, gave him a breakfast consisting of more cereal bars and told him in no uncertain terms to wake her in an hour. She would have liked to have got going then and there but she just could not stay awake any longer and she would only slow them down.

She looked at her watch when Harry woke her up and was unsurprised to find he had let her sleep for longer. "Harry, I said wake me in one hour, not two."

"You looked like you needed it."

She could not really argue with that as she yawned, stretched and winced. "Never mind," she said instead. "Let's get out of here."

She wished she had managed to convince the Doctor to give her some sort of vehicle, anything would have done. This interminable walking might have been more inconspicuous but it was getting harder, especially now that she hurt from the previous day's trek. Neither of them had the energy to say very much, so the day went much like the previous one, with endless walking punctuated by short rest stops.

When at last they came across a UNIT soldier, Sarah could have wept. The Doctor had been true to his word and the sergeant knew exactly who they were. Within minutes there seemed to be a swarm of them and the rest of their journey was in a bumpy jeep. Not that Sarah minded - she fell asleep and by the time she woke she was back in the TARDIS.

Sarah was angry when she got up and more so by the time she had failed to find the Doctor anywhere in the TARDIS. She eventually discovered he had parked it in her lounge again and was availing himself of the contents of her kitchen.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Making some tea," he said innocently, although she felt sure he knew what she meant. "Would you like some?"

"No, I want to know why you took me out of there before I could see Harry."

"Oh, he's safe." He had made her a cup anyway and she scowled at him as she took it.

"That's not the point, Doctor. We walked for two days because you wouldn't let me involve the TARDIS and then you didn't even give me a chance to check on him."

"You were asleep."

"Argh!" Having an argument with the Doctor was impossible because he either did not listen or he purposely did not understand what you said.

The doorbell rang while Sarah contemplated strangulation as a method of getting her point across. She heard it open and only then realised Rose had been there all the time, wisely not getting involved. At least the Doctor had managed to get her back at the right time, as she had gambled and asked Nat and Josh to come round not long after she left - two days ago from her perspective.

She did some swift introductions, "Josh, Nat, Doctor, Rose. We need to find Harry and quickly before something happens to him," she said as they all sat down. She was not really in the mood for small talk just now.

Nat had performed her second miracle in as many days, relatively speaking. "I compared the map you gave me to real ones on the internet. So I know where he is, assuming that's where they've gone."

"That's amazing. Nat, you're a star."

Nat beamed at the praise, even though Sarah said it often. Nat handed her annotated map to Rose, who was closest and she passed it to the Doctor without Sarah even getting to see it. Although since the Doctor would be the one to get them there, it was he that needed to know where they were going.

"I know who one of the people we're looking for is," the Doctor said, quietly.

Sarah swallowed what she wanted to say to him and put their argument to one side. "Okay, who?"

He produced a photo from inside his long, brown coat and passed it to her. "Do you recognise him?"

The man in the picture could well have been described as tall, blond and handsome. But apart from the UNIT uniform he wore, he could have been anyone. "No," she said at last, "should I?"

"He certainly remembers you. Although not necessarily in the nicest terms, given what K-9 heard him say about you."

Sarah frowned and looked round at K-9.

"The photograph is of one of the men who came to the house three days ago," he confirmed.

Sarah rubbed her eyes and thought for a minute. Time travel made calculating dates a nuisance.

"He's still in UNIT," the Doctor said, before she could say anything else. "He was at the base and heard me describe you to them." He looked straight at her. "I thought I should get you out before he saw you."

Sarah looked away. Why had he not told her that at the start? She did not get a chance to say anything about it to him though, because Josh spoke first.

"Is anyone else completely lost?"

"For once, it's not just you," Nat agreed.

"I will explain everything later," Sarah promised. She had wanted to tell Nat and Josh about the Doctor and everything she had seen with him but she knew they would never believe her, it was just too fantastic a story. But perhaps, now that they could see the TARDIS, and had spent time with K-9, they might.

"For now, though," she continued, "we need to get to Harry and somehow convince the police to arrest this UNIT bloke and his friends. Which could be tricky given that I already told them I never saw them. Somehow I don't think they'll believe my dog identified them."

"I have an idea about that," Nat said. "Leave it to me; I'll speak to the police."

"Okay," Sarah agreed, not really knowing how Nat might go about that but believing that if she said she could do it then she could. She would ask later, when they would need explanations all round.

"The quickest way to get there," the Doctor said, "is in the TARDIS. Then we'll split up. Sarah, you take care of Harry; Rose and Josh can help me with the bad guys."

Sarah rolled her eyes at his words but agreed with his plan.

The Doctor hustled Rose and Josh into the TARDIS but Sarah missed Josh's reaction when he saw the inside because Nat pulled her to one side.

"Are you all right?" Nat asked her. "You look exhausted."

"I am, but then walking for two days will do that to you. I'll explain everything later, I promise," she added at Nat's confused expression. At this rate the story would take a day, at least.

"Sarah!" the Doctor called from the doorway.

"See you later," she promised, wishing she could have seen Nat's expression when the TARDIS dematerialised.

When she reached the console room Rose was trying to explain the TARDIS to Josh. Sarah took pity on her and took over. "You believe in aliens, don't you, Josh?"

Josh hesitated; the subject had been a sore point with them for a while, although in Josh's defence he had no way of knowing all the reasons why.

"Well, the Doctor here is an alien and this is his spaceship," she continued in a tone that told him she expected no argument to this statement.

He did not get much of a chance anyway because the Doctor said, "We're here," in a cheerful voice.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked.

Sarah smiled. The TARDIS obviously had not got any more reliable. The Doctor ushered Sarah out of the door first and her eye was immediately drawn to three men beating up another not far in front of her. They had obviously not been distracted from their task by the sound of their arrival. She called out before her brain had registered that one of the men was the one in the photo the Doctor had showed her earlier and the man on the ground was Harry.

The men scrambled, each in a different direction among the grey buildings that surrounded the area, and the Doctor and Rose raced after them. Josh, to his credit, barely paused upon stepping out of the TARDIS and following them. Sarah dug her mobile phone out of her pocket and had called an ambulance even before she reached Harry's side.

"Harry!" she called, as she knelt down next to him. He had one arm held around his chest and there was blood on his face, although where it was coming from she could not say.

Harry merely groaned and stayed curled in a protective ball.

She put on hand tentatively on his shoulder, not wanting to hurt him any more than he already was. "I'm so sorry we didn't get to you any earlier."

He coughed and looked up at her as he uncurled slightly. "You're here," he said in a hoarse voice.

She debated going back to the TARDIS for a first aid kit but decided to stay with him as she was not really sure what to do for him anyway. She took her jacket off and laid it over him. It was possibly a futile gesture but it at least made her feel like she was helping.

"Need to teach you first aid," Harry said, with an almost-smile.

"I didn't do so badly with your wrists and ankles," she said, picking up one hand and pushing up his sleeve so she could see for herself they were healed. It seemed odd that something that had only happened a day ago for her was several months ago for him.

"That was you?"

"I borrowed the TARDIS." It was easier to go with the simpler and shorter version of the truth just now. "I still ache from all that walking," she said with a smile.

She had not quite dropped his hand after she examined his wrists, and he turned his arm slightly to grasp at her hand. "You are my guardian angel."

She could not stop herself from blushing at his compliment. "I'm just returning the favour for all the times you rescued me."

He coughed again and his hand tightened around Sarah's. Worried at the sound of his breathing she looked around but there was no-one else about. It looked like London inasmuch as all she could see was grey concrete and the tall buildings that formed their immediate surroundings and blocked out the view of any more distant objects. Even where she sat was paved and was starting to make her knees hurt.

"Where are we?" she asked Harry, but her only reply was a loosening of his grip on her hand. She looked at him to discover his eyes had closed. "Don't pass out on me!"

He half-opened his eyes. "I'm not."

She stole a look at her watch, glad that someone would be able to locate her mobile phone signal to get the ambulance to them. She wondered if it was worth asking Harry to get up, so she could get them to somewhere more visible from a road but he did not look like he was going anywhere. Plus she seemed to remember something about not moving a casualty when it came to first aid and she felt she ought to at least follow that one, if nothing else.

By the time she heard sirens she was nearly frantic. She stopped breathing for a minute, trying to work out if she was imagining the sound and hoping, once she was sure it was real, that it was coming in their direction. She need not have worried because it was the ambulance she had called. She got up to make sure they were coming over and when she looked down she could see there was blood left on her hand.

The paramedics shouted things to each other about Harry that she did not understand, while she tried not to panic. She was not getting very far on that front when they loaded him into the ambulance. She managed to get herself in there too, by claiming she was Harry's sister, as they were not exactly in a position to check her story and Harry was unlikely to protest, especially as he had not said anything for some time by that point.


	4. Epilogue

Title: Dream a Little Dream  
Author: paranoidangel  
Words: 17,000 altogether  
Rating: PG  
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Nat Redfern, Josh Townsend  
Spoilers: SJS audios: Buried Secrets and Fatal Consequences, School Reunion and small ones for The Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel  
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.  
Disclaimer: Not mine, guv 

**Epilogue**

Sarah woke suddenly, breathing heavily with the shadow of her nightmare hanging over her. Somewhere in her dream her mind had got confused and images of Harry being tortured by Daleks still held sway in the darkness. Somehow it had not been so bad when it seemed like her life was in imminent danger; at least then she only had the energy to worry about herself. Now that she had time to process everything it meant that her imagination, which was pretty good at the best of times, had free reign. That she had slightly more information just helped her mind conjure up more awful things that had happened to Harry than what he went go through, in all probability.

The hospital had only released him on the condition that there was someone to look after him, so he was again staying at her flat. It meant she could keep an eye on him and she was glad about that. It was hard to do it without him noticing though. He kept trying to tell her he was fine but the expression on his face when he reached up into a high cupboard told her that was not true, physically at least.

While he was in hospital she had spent her time making friends with people at NATO who she hoped might be able to tell her something. Eventually she managed to contact a doctor there who she gave Harry's details to and in turn extracted a promise they would speak to him without mentioning her name - Harry would not forgive her for helping him, not yet anyway. She had to be satisfied with that because they were obviously not going to let her get any further.

In a funny way she was glad this had all happened. Beforehand the two of them had not seen much of each other, although they were no less friends because of it. Now, though, they were much closer. She had known Sir Donald's words were true when he spoke about her keeping everyone at arm's length. Fixing that after many years was difficult but Harry was the one person she had kept at less of a distance anyway, so it was easier with him, if not actually easy.

Even after she had got her breathing back under control the blackness of the room still seemed too oppressive. After lying on her back contemplating her invisible ceiling, she got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen. Shielding her eyes she flicked the switch in the hall, so there would be enough light to see but not so much that it woke her up completely. As she passed she saw the soft glow of K-9 asleep in the lounge but did not disturb him.

She considered drinking something stronger but she did want to go back to sleep at some point, so satisfied herself with a glass of water. She leant back against the sideboard and tried not to think about the upcoming trial because that was what usually kept her awake. It would not be for a while yet and she might not have to give evidence in the end but just in case, DC Taylor - she had not got used to calling him by his first name yet - had been talking to her about it. For which she was grateful but she did wish he had waited a while - in this case she felt ignorance was bliss, for now at least.

It would not be the first time she had been in court but it had never been for anything so personal. Not just because it involved Harry but also because one of the men they had arrested appeared to be a UNIT soldier with a grudge. To make it worse they had either not found out what he had been trying to achieve or they were not telling her. Although she suspected that they would not say anything to her either way.

Sarah sighed. The more she tried not to think about it the more she wound herself up about something that may never happen. She wondered if it was even worth going back to bed but she had not thought to look at the clock in her room before she got up and the microwave merely blinked 0:00 at her which was not helpful. She considered waking K-9 up but he would not have any more information for her. Although he would be able too listen for longer than anyone else without getting bored he was not quite so good at offering advice and she doubted he would be able to say anything to help her sleep.

Fortunately, as she finished her water and debated what to do next, Harry appeared in the doorway, blinking in the light.

"Sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to wake you." She should have left the lights off until she was in the kitchen with the door shut. She was not used to living with someone else.

Harry shook his head and leant against the cooker, opposite her. "I wasn't asleep."

Sarah wondered if he'd had another nightmare but she knew better than to ask.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly and looked concerned, which seemed like the wrong way round at the moment.

On the one hand she wanted to tell him he did not need to worry about her and she could look after herself but that did not really seem quite like the truth. She wanted to tell him about her nightmare. Maybe if he told her what had actually happened they would go away, for them both, but she did not want to guilt him into talking about it before he was ready.

"I need to learn to relax," she told him. "I don't seem to be very good at doing nothing."

He grinned. "I noticed."

She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the argument that would have caused him to think that, however much it was true. "Oh, Harry, I meant to apologise. When we argued the other day," or was it longer ago than that? "I never meant to hurt you."

"I know. Anyway, you rescued me twice, that was enough."

"If that's only enough, what do I have to do to apologise for something worse?" She smiled at him to show she was not serious and he followed suit.

Silence fell between them for a moment and she looked out the window at the stars outside - not that she could see that many where she lived. She had briefly thought about moving again but she did like living in London, and that her friends lived in the city as well made her decision for her. She heard Harry shift position and looked back to see him stand up straight.

"I had an appointment today," he said, not quite meeting her eyes, even in the half-light, "and I'm cleared to go back to work. So I'm going in on Monday. I'll go back to my flat this weekend, it probably needs cleaning."

"Oh." She did not know quite what else to say; she had not been expecting that. She had got used to having him around. "This is the job that nearly killed you. Are you sure it's safe?"

"What was the life expectancy of UNIT personnel again?"

"I know, I just worry. You can't blame me after you were missing for so long."

Harry took a step forward and enfolded her in a (careful) hug. "I'm not going anywhere."

Sarah rested her head against his shoulder and reminded herself he was not leaving the country this time and she could phone him whenever she liked. "Just be careful."

"You too."

With that it seemed like there was nothing more to say and they both went back to bed. It was not really a surprise to Sarah that she tossed and turned for what felt like hours before finally falling asleep.


End file.
